Mentors dig in to help Clark County community gardeners

Elliot Njus/The OregonianRobert Bacon plants tomato seeds for use in community gardens when the growing season starts. Bacon, a master gardener, was trained as a mentor for community gardens through the Growing Groceries program last year.

Billie Reed was hesitant to start a plot at a Clark County community garden in the first place. She was in treatment for skin cancer, and she thought the time in the sun would be too much.

But Reed, who was on disability during her treatment, needed a way to lower her grocery bill. So she dug in, and with help from a few of the mentors provided through her church, she planted a crop of corn, potatoes, lettuce and broccoli.

And whenever Reed was at a loss, she had a little help at her disposal. Her community garden at Vancouver Heights United Methodist Church had a lot of experienced gardeners, including two Growing Groceries mentors trained to help out new gardeners.

"Watching everybody and being in a team really makes a difference," Reed said. "They'd come running right over," she said.

Starting a garden can be tough under the best of circumstances, and splitting the responsibility of a community garden with neighbors or other members of a church can complicate things.

That's where Clark County's Growing Groceries mentors come in. In a community forum last year, the Public Health department found would-be gardeners were intimidated by getting started. The county, in partnership with the Washington State University Extension, created a training program for experienced gardeners to coach up-and-comers.

Last year, the Growing Groceries mentor class trained 57 people to help develop Clark County community gardens. Classes for the next crop of mentors start today, and coordinator Carolyn Gordon hopes the program can keep the community gardening momentum going.

"The demand has exploded in the last couple years," Gordon said. "Most of the community gardens are completely full, so there is obviously a need for more."

The mentors are trained to help people establish a community garden, get more people involved and find resources, like grants and tools.

Master gardener Robert Bacon, one of last year's mentor class, said he helped several groups find sites for their gardens, decide what to plant and set a harvesting schedule.

He also helped head off a few common stumbling blocks.

"A lot of people would want to plant things that are easy to plant, but they wouldn't ever eat them," he said. "They'd just go bad."

Instead, he advised them to figure out what they needed and plant accordingly.

Most of the gardeners were beginners, Bacon said, who had turned to gardening as a way to save money during the recession.

"They would know trees and a few plants, but most of them hadn't gardened in years," he said. "For them, it was kind of a hobby, and it started to become more of a money thing last year."

The program hit a few snags in its first year. Many of the 57 mentors missed one of the four classes, and most neglected to check in after they finished their training to see how effective the project had been.

"There's some growing pains in getting any of these programs started," Gordon said.

But, she said, the program had a role in starting about five community gardens in Clark County, and the mentors who did report in said they spent 136 hours at 17 gardens.

The program was funded by a $600 grant from the Master Gardener Foundation and tuition paid by mentors. Private donors gave $3,000 for tuition scholarships and to reimburse mentors for buying gardening materials.

But, Bacon said, the program fills a niche where previously there had been few resources. Bacon volunteers with the Master Gardener program to help answer questions from less experienced gardeners, but he said master gardeners rarely make home visits to help novices get started.

As a Growing Groceries mentor, he visited a handful of startup community gardens to help them find an ideal site, prepare the site for planting and develop a plan for growing and harvesting food.

And with the especially persistent poor economy in Clark County, Bacon said, the community garden movement has a lot of momentum. All it needs to keep it up is a few good growing seasons.

"We have the land," he said. "We have everything. If people are successful in gardening, they'll come back next year and keep doing it. If they're not, they won't."